


Loyalty

by bexacaust



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Other, mentions of implied/possible abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 10:18:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4783724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bexacaust/pseuds/bexacaust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Knockout has a question.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loyalty

He was lit by the sheen of screens.

 Knockout approached him, cautious, the way one would come close to a serpent hissing in the shadows. He tilted his head, watching the Commander seem to absorb the information flickering at a high rate over the display and scoffing every so oftne as line of values and shorthand displeased him.

 Starscream glanced over his shoulder, wary as a street stray.

 “What is it.”

 Knockout froze.

 “Come now, I don't have all day. I'm busy, if you couldn't tell. Not all of us can while away the hours in street races and half-hearted innuendo.”

 Knockout cleared his throat as the sound of the door behind closing seemed far too loud.

 “Well?”

 “Why do you follow him.”

 “Who.”

 “Megatron, obviously. Why do you follow him?”

 Starscream, turned away, seeming to deflate ever so slightly.

 “...Because I am loyal.”

 “Why do you follow him if it causes you such pain? Be honest with me, for once in your life. Consider it a medical interest if it makes it easier for you. But please, tell me... Why do you serve him if it makes you so miserable? Where is this loyalty of yours?”

 Starscream shut down the display, and they stood in soft lights of automatic functions.

 “Because...”

 Knockout moved forward as Starscream's voice lowered to an almost nervous level.

 “Because I must.”

 “Why?”

 Starscream sighed, hands on the central hub as he stared at nothing, “Because there comes a point where loyalty becomes obligation... after that, everything is simply done in fear of the consequences should you choose otherwise."

 Knockout opened his mouth to try and speak, but merely closed it again.

 “Because worth is something so foreign to me; so far out of my reach for so very long that I would sacrifice everything for it.”

 Starscream shook his head.

 “Everything. My dignity, my desires... my safety.”

 He turned, standing straight yet still seeming to bend under Atlas's worldly weight.

 “And so, I serve him; because it is all I know, and all I have... And because any other option is unavailable to me at this point.”

 A nod of his head, and a soft “I bid you good evening, Doctor.”

 Knockout watched him walk away, suddenly seeing the glint of irreparable warps in the steel he was built of, encased in; seeing the chips in his wings and the lean of his frame from too many hours spent groveling and battling all for a god-leader who moved his pawns indiscriminately.

 And, he thought, maybe he understood Starscream's love of flight suddenly a little more.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I was three-quarters asleep and eating brunch after a nightshift have mercy on me.


End file.
